Biography
Cyrus Pringle was a Quaker from Charlotte, Vermont — later one of the great American botanists. Cyrus Pringle was one of three Vermont Quakers drafted into the Union Army on July 13, 1863, who refused both to bear arms and — as a compromise of principle — to pay the $300 commutation fee. Sent to the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, the men were pressured, threatened, and abused; at Culpeper on October 3, 1863, they were staked spread-eagle to the ground for hours. When Secretary of War Edwin Stanton learned of it he had "the three incorrigibles" brought to Washington, and on November 7, 1863 they were released at the personal wish of President Lincoln. His diary, "The Record of a Quaker Conscience," became a classic account of conscientious objection. (Recorded as Cyrus Guernsey Pringle)